Doesn’t October feel a little different than usual? A little…fresher? It could be because the Calgary Flames are winning games at the start of a hockey season! You heard right, the Flames are not off to their perennial crawling start. For the past five years, two games in to the season we would be hearing all about how Kiprusoff is past his prime, how the Flames can’t win on the road, and about the stretch of X amount of powerplay opportunities without a goal. Sounds familiar right?
We all know it’s just 2 games out of 82, but it sure is a nice change of pace to be 2-0 and to have the notoriously slow starting Finn Miikka Kiprusoff on top of his game already. Tonight, the storyline will be Mike Cammalleri and his return to the city that a year ago saw his best NHL campaign. But if Calgary can get 2 more points, all the talk tomorrow will be about the win and a chance to really get a great head-start to the 09/10 season.
On The Line
Again, for Calgary – the chance at a 3-0 record. Unheard of in recent years…93/94 was the last 3-0 start. A nice chance to put some good early distance between the Flames and the Vancouver Canucks, who have recorded 3 consecutive regulation losses to kick-off the new campaign. A six point lead right now doesn’t sound like much, but come season’s end it could be absolutely vital. Montreal is 2-0 as well, on the merit of back-to-back overtime road wins over Toronto and Buffalo. They have lost Andrei Markov for up to 4 months … that big hole has to catch up to them soon. They need points now before it does. This is as big an early season game against a team from the east can get and it should be a fun tilt at the saddledome tonight.
The Flow
An entertaining opening period began with a long stretch of play without many stoppages. Craig Conroy had the first scoring chance with a deceiving wrist shot that Halak had to react quickly to save. Calgary opened the scoring 8:17 in to the game as Eric Nystrom found a loose puck after a Kronwall point shot hit traffic. Nystrom spun around and wristed the puck past Halak. Give an unofficial assist to Sjostrom who appeared to shoot Nystrom’s stick while Nystrom was shooting the puck and gave it enough gas to beat the Habs netminder. Things were looking up for Calgary until the final 90 seconds of the period when Ollie Jokinen over-skated an Iginla pass, which led to Michael Cammalleri feeding Scott Gomez who absolutely wired a one-time bomb past Kiprusoff from the right faceoff circle to knot the game at one goal apiece. The lead-destroying Flames from last season then made a brief reappearance and allowed a goal immediately after wards, just 32 seconds later to be exact by a fortunate Guillaume Latendresse who found an errant puck after the Flames were caught sleeping in their own end as the Habs buzzed off the high from the first goal. This was Calgary’s first time trailing a game this season.
Most of period 2 was great for Calgary. They came out hard and racked up 8 shots before Montreal gained even one. Dustin Boyd had a glorious chance in an opening flurry that Halak flashed the pad to deny. Calgary tied the game at the 13:03 mark when Adam Pardy wound up and blasted a point shot that deflected off a well-positioned Eric Nystrom and fluttered in to the back of the net. The Flames were awarded a powerplay shortly after and wasted no time, needing only 21 seconds of powerplay time to take the lead. Ollie Jokinen blasted a shot that rang off the left post and came straight to Jarome Iginla, who potted his 1st of the year with a quick backhand past a disoriented Halak. But just like in the 1st period, Calgary fell asleep at the end. Tomas Plekanec backhanded the puck in to the net with 11 seconds left past a snoozing Kiprusoff. Just a brutal goal by #34 after an excellent period. Score was tied at 3 going in to the 3rd.
The final frame started off furiously for Calgary as Curtis Glencross hit the post in the 1st minute, then Eric Nystrom gave the Flames the lead with a tip in off a Staffan Kronwall point shot at 2:16. Calgary would go on to play a pretty decent period after that with Kiprusoff holding the fort after his 2nd period gaffe. Montreal would fire 15 pucks at #34 but couldn’t tie the game, and the Flames won by a final score of 4-3.
Three Stars
1. Eric Nystrom: A hat-trick?! At the end of the game, yes. Either way, he’d be first star anyways. Energy and fire all night to go along with his spirited fight with Chipchura in the 2nd period.
2. Adam Pardy: Mr. Bonavista had 2 assists to go with a huge hit and a +3 rating.
3. Fredrik Sjostrom: Just 1 assist but aside from Nystrom was the Flames best forward. Tons of speed and grit. Great player and a great find by Darryl Sutter.
Big Save
Jaroslav Halak stoned Dustin Boyd in close with his right pad as the Flames 3rd liner tried to tie the game early in the middle frame. That save kept the Flames at bay for most of the period until they were able to strike for 2 goals later on.
Big Hit
Adam Pardy caught Max Pacioretty leaning as he brought the puck over the Flames blueline. A bone crushing shoulder sent the left-winger crashing to the ice in a crumpled heap.
The Goat
Not one play or player really defined the loss for Montreal. Jaroslav Halak should have been better, so I’ll hang the horns on him for playing so Halackadaisically.
Mr. Clutch
The entire team for not taking 1 single minor penalty the entire contest. I can not recall when that last happened for Calgary. Great discipline and great officiating. Its so easy to complain about the referees, so I’m going to point out that they did a fantastic job calling this one.
Odds and Ends
This was the 100th regular season meeting between the Canadiens and Flames. Surprised Montreal didn’t have some sort of ceremony to honour the 100th…those guys like to do that. What is going on with the assistant captains. In game #1, Dion is wearing the A. Game #2, he’s not. Game #3, there is the A back on Phaneuf’s sweater. Maybe a home-road thing? Fight card: Brandon Prust must have been hungry. He used the remains of Greg Stewart’s face that he turned into lunchmeat with his fists to make himself a knuckle sandwich. Never seen Prust dominate a fight like that before. Eric Nystrom fought Kyle “Freddy Prince Jr” Chipchura, give the decision to Habs forward…he was all that. Those late period goals need to be worked on. Nothing more deflating in a game of hockey when you allow a goal and then have 20 minutes to think about it. The Flames have only trailed in a game for just over 7 minutes out of 180 minutes of play. Dion Phaneuf is the only flame to record a point in all 3 games. Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regehr were both an ugly -3. But Nystrom, Pardy, Sjostrom, and Prust were all +3. Jay Bouwmeester led the way with 24:22 in icetime. The trio of Bourque – Langkow – Dawes all had the highest icetime amongst forwards. The top line had their best game of the season, but they were still just the 3rd best line on the team….need to be much better. Calgary allowed 30 shots to make it 3 consecutive games with 30+ shots against. Calgary fired 28 pucks the way of Halak.
Next Up
The Oilers come to Calgary for a Thursday night game at 7:30 PM MT. Catch the action on Sportsnet West or the Fan 960 as Nikolai Khabiblin will attempt to make amends for his game costing blooper from Saturday.
Lines (To Start):
Moss – Jokinen – Iginla
Dawes – Langkow – Bourque
Glencross – Conroy – Boyd
Sjostrom – Nystrom – Prust(rom)
Regehr – Phaneuf
Giordano – Bouwmeester Pardy – Kronwall
Kiprusoff
